Towards the end of his April 7th article “The Terror of Ethnic Cleansing,” Shawn Redden accuses pro-Israel “attack dogs” of vilifying him in “a tactic to avoid debating the issue of occupation.” No, Shawn. You are vilified you because your articles are chock full of lies, misguiding statistics, misplaced moral equivalency of Israeli self-defense and Palestinian terrorism, and inappropriate buzzwords like “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.” But instead of arguing those points, today I am going to do exactly what you claim Israel’s supporters are desperately trying to avoid – that’s right, let’s talk occupation!
To understand the current “occupation” of “Palestinian land,” we must go through a brief history of the region. From 1914 to 1948, the former Ottoman province of Palestine was under British Mandate. In 1929, Britain gave two-thirds of that Mandate west of the Jordan River to King Abdullah, who created Trans-Jordan. Britain abandoned the region because it could not control the violence or successfully divide the land between Jews and Arabs. In 1948, UN Resolution 181 suggested splitting Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. While the Jews immediately accepted the offer, the Arabs rejected it outright and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestinian militia (with the help of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Libya) waged war against the newly born Israel. Amazingly, the tiny, ragtag Israeli army won the war. New borders were drawn -the “Green Line” often mentioned today. Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and Jordan occupied the West Bank.
In 1967, Egyptian president Nasser illegally closed international waters, the Straits of Tiran, to Israeli ships. This is an act of war under international law. Nasser proclaimed, “We knew the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba meant war with Israel… the objective will be Israel’s destruction.” Again, Israel fought off Egypt, Syria and Jordan, capturing more land, including Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the entire Sinai Peninsula. Thus began the “occupation.”
Israel retained control over these territories (inhabited mostly, though not entirely, by Palestinians) in order to use them as bargaining chips for peace with the Arab nations that had now twice attacked it since its creation. The Arabs delivered their famous response: “No recognition; no negotiation; no peace.” Then, in 1973, after yet another Arab offensive war, Israel gave the Sinai back to Egypt and withdrew all Israeli settlements there in exchange for peace. Israel expected Jordan to make the same deal for the West Bank, but Jordan never did, probably because they wanted nothing to do with the Palestinians and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (remember that in 1970 King Hussein of Jordan expelled the Arafat-led PLO from Jordan because of its attempts to subvert his regime and international terrorist activities, including hijacking foreign planes).
Since 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza, territories that had never legally been allocated or belonged to any country, and has suffered unceasing terror attacks from Palestinian terrorist groups. Several offers of peace and nationhood have been offered to the Palestinian Authority, but each time Arafat categorically rejects the offer and reverts to terrorism.
That is how the occupation came to be, not because of Israel’s imperialist, racist, (throw in some more Redden-esque buzzwords) goals. Israel does not seek to continue occupation since it gains nothing by doing so, and it does not seek to wipe out the Palestinian people or it would already have done so with ease. As further proof of Israel’s intentions, consider the drastic differences in Palestinian standard of living under Israeli civil jurisdiction (1967-93) and under Palestinian Authority rule since then. Under Israel, unemployment and mortality rates drastically dropped, GNP and healthcare skyrocketed, and education and civil liberties improved. Since the Palestinian Authority has taken over, all these advances have virtually disappeared.
The truth is evident: Israel wants to end the occupation through negotiation and creation of an independent Palestinian state in territories to which it has as legitimate a claim as the Palestinians. However, every time Israel offers a deal, the P.A. rejects it and resumes terrorism and violence in order to achieve its ultimate goal of “liberating” historical Palestine which, according to the Palestinian National Charter, is the boundaries of the British Mandate (that is, all of Israel and Jordan). Furthermore, the Charter reads: “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase… The liberation of Palestine… aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine.”
“The Terror of Ethnic Cleansing” indeed.